Update: We now have an official web site for this event, and signups are open.
Mark it in your calendar right now: on November 8th, Freebase will be hosting a Hack Day here at our offices in San Francisco.
If you’ve been to any of our recent user group meetings, you’ve probably heard about our forthcoming application development platform, Acre. Our Hack Day is a chance to learn about Acre in detail and start building apps and mashups built on Freebase’s structured data. Freebase staff and developers will be on hand to help you out, answer questions, and even collaborate on your project.
If you’re not a programmer, but are interested in open data or have data you’d like to share with Freebase, we’ll be able to help you with that too. We can hold your hand through the process of building schema, loading data, and creating a user domain to help build community around your area of interest.
At the same time as all this hacking, we’ll have rooms set aside for unconference-style discussions and workshops. Whatever your field of interest — from visualisations to iPhone apps to social change — you can claim a room, a whiteboard, and a projector for a half hour slot to discuss it with like-minded people.
Freebase community members regularly awe us with their broad range of interests and depth of expertise. While this event is largely unstructured and will provide space for whatever you’re into, we’d also like to highlight and suggest a few areas known to interest many community members. One of the themes we want to address at this event (especially with it falling so soon after the US presidential elections) is the subject of Open Government. We know there are a number of people interested in using Freebase to help expose connections between politicians, businesses, and other entities. If this is your field, we’d especially love to have you here to meet with others doing similar work.
We may be coming up with some other themes between now and then, depending on attendee interest, so let us know if you’ve got any suggestions.
Of course, this event is free (lunch and tshirt included) and all are welcome. Sign up here.
